A pedal apparatus, such as an accelerator pedal apparatus or a brake pedal apparatus, is installed in a vehicle. Mechanical components of the pedal apparatus are increasingly being replaced with electronic and communications components such as a sensor, an electric motor, and a field-bus; a mechanical throttle system of the accelerator pedal apparatus is replaced with an electronic throttle system (ETS).
The ETS electronically controls an acceleration of the vehicle and generally includes an accelerator pedal position sensor (APS) mounted on an accelerator pedal to transmit a press state and position information of the accelerator pedal to an electric control unit (ECU). The ECU calculates an amount of air to flow in an engine of the vehicle based on the press state and the position information of the accelerator pedal. The ECU transmits an instructed opening angle of a throttle valve to an electric throttle controller (ETC) based on a corresponding result to control a speed of the vehicle based on an acceleration requested by a driver. Because the ETS controls the speed of the vehicle based on information measured by the APS, the accuracy of the APS is critically important.
The above description is technical information that has been possessed or acquired by the inventor(s) in the process of conceiving the present invention and cannot be necessarily considered as well-known technology that had been known to the public before the filing of the present invention.